Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Homosexuals are being courted by employers – from spooks to the city

By Jerome TaylorTuesday, 19 August 2008

When Angela Mason began her 10-year directorship of the Stonewall gaylobby group in 1992, she had a friend in the corporate world who hadtwo phones in his house. One he used to take personal calls for himand his partner. The other was for the office. When it came to beingout and proud in the workplace, few and far between was the employeewho would happily step out of the closet and declare: "I'm gay, let'sdo business."

When Angela Mason began her 10-year directorship of the Stonewall gaylobby group in 1992, she had a friend in the corporate world who hadtwo phones in his house. One he used to take personal calls for himand his partner. The other was for the office. When it came to beingout and proud in the workplace, few and far between was the employeewho would happily step out of the closet and declare: "I'm gay, let'sdo business."

"People used to genuinely fear that they would lose their jobs if theywere outed, and many did," Mason remembers. "If you were found out itwas absolutely the end."

It was with some sense of satisfaction, therefore, that Ms Mason readthe news this week that MI5 was finally going to step out of thecloset itself and begin openly recruiting people from within the gaycommunity.

One of the last bastions of the British establishment, a place that,until the early 1990s, had actually banned hiring gays because offears that outed spies could be blackmailed, had finally capitulatedand realised that if you want to hire the best talent, you have tolook at all sections of society. The days of the Oxbridge don givingwhite, male graduates a tap on the shoulder and a nod towards ThamesHouse were truly over.

The domestic intelligence service is now not only going to startactively employing openly gay recruits, it is also hiring Stonewall (agroup once associated with, and run by, former radicals such as MsMason) to advise the security services on how to encourage its spiesto be more open about their sexuality and how to persuade more gayapplicants to apply for jobs there.

But as dramatic as MI5's announcement seems, it is part of a muchwider silent revolution that Stonewall has been pursuing for much ofthe past decade – persuading the corporate world to love gays. And inthe past few years it finally seems to be working.

In the late 1970s, Ms Mason, a young member of the anarchist AngryBrigades group, was tried and acquitted for planting bombs on thedoorsteps of Conservative politicians. She divorced in the 1980s tolive with her lesbian lover and, by 1992, had been appointed directorof Stonewall.

With such an anti-establishment figure heading Britain's foremost gaylobby group, Stonewall might have been expected to continue with thesort of tactics that had made its new director so notorious. Instead,Ms Mason, and Ben Summerskill, her successor as chief executive, didsomething far more radical – they took Stonewall mainstream and begancharming, rather than confronting, the corporate world.

The outcome of that tactic is that MI5 has now joined more than 430companies, representing more than four million employees, who havesigned up to Stonewall's list of "gay-friendly employers". Those onthe list actively recruit gay people and monitor the sexualorientation of their staff to ensure against silent discrimination.

Many encourage their gay and lesbian staff to take part in Prideevents as well as supporting the events financially. They are alsoexpected to have clear and publicised policies for dealing with casesof sexual discrimination and encourage the promotion of openly gaystaff on to the board or senior management team.

With 15,000 gay students leaving university every year and anestimated 1.7 million gay men and women of working age, Stonewallbegan persuading companies that discriminating against gay employeeswas simply bad for business.

The corporate world began to see sense. Where once people were firedfor their sexual orientation, major corporations now jostle with eachother to prove their equalitarian credentials.

To provide an incentive, Stonewall began producing an annual list of"top gay employers". Local authorities, charities and the voluntarysector all scored well but, every year, more and more mainstreamcorporations began appearing on the list.

By 2007, IBM, LloydsTSB, KPMG and Goldman and Sachs all came in thetop 10 and the pro-pink feeling is spreading. This year, Pinsent Masonbecame the first law firm to be included in the Top 100 gay employersand next year Stonewall expects to have at least 16 more.

"The trick is to present the business case to corporate employers,"says David Shields, director of workplace programmes at Stonewall andthe man who has spearheaded their campaigning in the corporate world.

"It simply doesn't make good business sense to have a reputation forbeing a workplace that is not open to gay and lesbian employers.Graduates who were out and proud at university are simply not willingto hide away once they get into the workforce. They'll simply taketheir skills to another company."

For Mr Summerskill, persuading MI5 to become a gay-friendly employerwas proof that even those organisations not historically thought to befriendly towards the gay rights movement are, in fact, coming in fromthe cold.

"I think what's really interesting about our corporate approach in thepast three years is the sheer variety of companies we have attracted,"he says. "Many of them are not the usual suspects you would havesigning up, and I think what we did with MI5 is an example of that.These are very counter-intuitive organisations. Even though the ban onrecruiting gay spies was lifted more than a decade ago, the messagehad trouble sinking in.

"But MI5 is so focused on recruiting the very best talent that theyrealised it was critically important to hire staff from all walks oflife."

Ashley Steel is the only known lesbian on the board of a Square Milecompany. She came out five years ago after spending some time workingfor KPMG's offices in San Francisco.

"I think once I'd fully come out I knew I couldn't go back in," shesays. "I've been at KPMG for more than 23 years now and it is acompletely different place to what it used to be."

She says major corporations are so keen to harness the best talentthat former prejudices have had to be dropped.

"If there is a war of talent going on, then why on earth would youwant to put people off who are gay or black or female? It simplydoesn't make business sense. And I think clients want to see a diverseworkforce."

She believes there is still some way to go – after all, there is noopenly gay person on the board of a FTSE 100 company. "Groups likeStonewall were originally set up to change the law and they did. Wehave thing like the equalities bill and civil partnerships. Butchanging a law doesn't change a person's behaviour, and that is whatthey are trying to do with the corporate sector."

Angela Eagle, the first lesbian MP to come out while still in theHouse of Commons, agrees. "What we have is legal equality in theory,but that does not necessarily eliminate the discrimination thatcontinues to exist," she says.

But for Ms Mason, who now works at the heart of government advisinglocal authorities on equalities and cohesion with the Improvement andDevelopment Agency, the corporate change of heart could hardly be morestark.

"Those companies that have positive employment practices do itprecisely because it signifies modernity," she says. "It's cuttingedge and glamorous. There's still lots to do but when I look back, wehave come miles and miles."

Six pioneers in the corporate world

Ashley Steel, KPMG

A vocal and openly gay director at KPMG, Ashley Steel is the onlyknown lesbian on the board of a Square Mile company. She has regularlyspoken out about how the corporate world needs to do more to promotegay people in the workplace. She came out only after working for KPMGin San Francisco. In 2005, she became KPMG's first board champion onsexual orientation.

Paul Tanner, 90TEN

The owner of the PR agency 90TEN, Paul Tanner specialises in publicrelations for the gay and lesbian communities. He has launchednumerous health initiatives to encourage gay men to vaccinatethemselves against hepatitis A and hepatitis B as well as being hiredby a number of prominent NHS trusts to improve their sexual healthservices.

Sir Michael Bishop, BMI

A former baggage handler at Manchester airport, Sir Michael, above,turned BMI into the UK's second largest airline after BA. Not knownfor speaking out about gay rights, his presence at the head of BMIproves being out and gay shouldn't stop you getting ahead in business.

Robert Taylor, Kleinwort Benson Private Bank

One of the City's best known openly gay movers and shakers, he earnthis stripes at Coutts & Co where he was head of private banking. Isnow chief executive of Kleinwort Benson Private Bank.

Angela Mason, activist

Radical campaigner turned government insider, Angela Mason began herpolitical career as an anarchist with the Angry Brigades in the 1970sbefore coming out in the 1980s and taking up the gay rights cause.Served as director of Stonewall throughout the 1990s, making it moremainstream, charming corporations and leading the fight for the repealof Section 28. She now chairs the Fawcett Society, a women's rightscampaigning organisation

Charles Allen, Global Radio

A former chief executive of ITV, the openly gay Charles Allen is nowone of the most powerful figures in the world of radio. His company,Global Radio, is the UK's largest radio provider and includes thepopular Heart, LBC and Galaxy radio stations.